Quote

I've never done anything bad. I can't do anything bad. It's got to be professional. It's got to look professional. It's got to read professional. In other words, it serves its purpose by entertaining a reader.

Jack Kirby

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Jack Kirby
Age: 76 †
Born: 1917
Born: August 28
Died: 1994
Died: February 6
Animator
Artist
Character Designer
Comics Writer
Inker
Penciller
Storyboard Artist
New York City
New York
Jacob Kurtzberg
Never
Reader
Purpose
Read
Words
Anything
Look
Serves
Looks
Entertaining
Done
Professional

More quotes by Jack Kirby

Image
Nobody ever asked me to do anything. Nobody knew what to do. When comics were brand new, nobody knew what kind of comics to make. So you were mostly on your own.
Jack Kirby
Image
I've done my job extremely well. My only beef is that a lot of people have put their fingers in whatever I've done and tried to screw it up, and I've always resented that.
Jack Kirby
Image
I'm a guy who had to perform some way. I had to perform in some way. If not as an actor, I'd perform as an artist. It would have been something that would be outstanding in its own way.
Jack Kirby
Image
I was a good student in the subjects that I wanted to be good in. The curriculum in my section was excellent.
Jack Kirby
Image
My anatomy was self-taught. I feel everybody has that ability. I drew instinctively. Mine was an instinctive style.
Jack Kirby
Image
I'd had a belly-full of being subservient. I had to find something else to do, and I did. I went to the animation houses. I went to new fields.
Jack Kirby
Image
There were very strict social conventions, and you adhered to it, and I think it gave you a lot of character. When a man said something, he meant it. He wasn't kidding around. There were no jokes involved. Nobody was in the mood to joke unless you hit a guy with a baseball bat.
Jack Kirby
Image
I always resent anybody interfering with anybody else trying to do his job. Everybody has his own job to do. If he's good, he'll do well, but if he's mediocre, he's not going to do as well as he should.
Jack Kirby
Image
A man is entitled to draw things in his own style. I didn't hurt Superman. I made him powerful. I admire Superman, but I've got to do my own style.
Jack Kirby
Image
Comics have a caste system - an editor has to act in a certain way, an artist has to be humble.
Jack Kirby
Image
I'm OMAC! Evacuate this section! I'm going to destroy it!
Jack Kirby
Image
Superman is going to live forever. They'll be reading Superman in the next century when you and I are gone. I felt, in that respect, I was doing the same thing. I wanted to be known. I wasn't going to sell a comic that was going to die quickly.
Jack Kirby
Image
I didn't have an affinity for horror. But I knew that commercially it was viable.
Jack Kirby
Image
I always enjoyed doing monster books. Monster books gave me the opportunity to draw things out of the ordinary. Monster books were a challenge - what kind of monster would fascinate people?
Jack Kirby
Image
I hated to fight all the time just to enjoy my day. Fighting wasn't the kind of thing that I enjoyed, but I grew to enjoy it because I did it so long.
Jack Kirby
Image
Some of my friends became gangsters. You became a gangster depending upon how fast you wanted a suit. Gangsters weren't the stereotypes you see in the movies. I knew the real ones, and the real ones were out for big money.
Jack Kirby
Image
I won't do anything bad, and I resent very deeply bad people who haven't got the ability, who try to interfere with the kind of work I'm trying to do because nobody's going to benefit from it.
Jack Kirby
Image
I've never done anything half-heartedly. It's the reason my comics did well. It's the reason my comics were drawn well. I can't do anything bad.
Jack Kirby
Image
It's not in the draftsmanship, it's in the man. Like I say, a tool is dead. A brush is a dead object. It's in the man. If you want to do it, you do it.
Jack Kirby
Image
I want to be better than five guys. I was that way when I used to box, I was that way in any sport. I want to compete with five other guys. If I beat five other guys, I'd like to see if I can beat six.
Jack Kirby